System, method, and apparatus for reducing power dissipation of sensor data for bit-serial communication

ABSTRACT

A communication system receives a binary sequence from a sensor, identifies a power consuming characteristic of the binary sequence, and determines an error component configured to reduce the power consuming characteristic of the binary sequence. The system compares the error component to an error tolerance deviation, and if the error component is below the error tolerance deviation, combines the error component with the binary sequence to produce an output sequence and transmits the output sequence via a serial interface to a receiver configured to receive the output sequence. The error threshold is based in part on an error tolerance characteristic of the receiver.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/612,485 filed Jun. 2, 2017, entitled “System, Method, and Apparatusfor Reducing Power Dissipation of Sensor Data on Bit-SerialCommunication Interfaces,” which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 62/344,625, filed Jun. 2, 2016, entitled“Method and Apparatus for Reducing Power Dissipation on Bit-SerialCommunication Interfaces,” both of which are incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety.

GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS

This invention was made with Government support under Contract No.FA8650-15-C-7564 awarded by the U.S. Air Force. The Government hascertain rights in the invention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to electronic circuitry, and moreparticularly, is related to serial communication devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Wearable computing platforms such as health-tracking and head-mountedsystems present new challenges to energy-efficient design. Unlikedesktop and mobile systems, such platforms function primarily with theirdisplays (if any) turned off. They spend a majority of their timereading data from sensors such as pressure sensors in elevationmonitoring, accelerometers and gyroscopes in step counting applications,color/light sensors in pulse oximeter health applications, and camerasin head-mounted augmented-reality systems.

Sensor power dissipation is important. The processors in wearable,embedded, and mobile platforms are usually the main focus ofpower-reduction efforts. These processors are, however, often connectedto many sensor integrated circuits (ICs). Because the power-efficiencyfor inter-IC communication may be limited by printed circuit boardproperties, power consumption of sensor circuits has not scaled withsemiconductor process technology and packaging advances. As a result,the power dissipated in some state-of-the-art sensors may be nearly ashigh as the power dissipation of low-power processors.

Input/output (I/O) energy costs generally range from 10 fJ/bit/mm to 180fJ/bit/mm in on-chip links, to between 2 pJ/bit and 40 pJ/bit fortypical printed circuit board (PCB) traces. At data rates of 1 Mb/stypical of modern embedded serial links, these energy costs per bit leadto I/O power dissipation between 2 μW and 40 μW. This may represent asignificant portion of power dissipation of a processor and such powerdissipation is incurred for each sensor in a system. I/O energy thuspresents a significant portion of power usage in many low-power embeddedsystems.

To enable smaller device packages, smaller PCB designs, and lower costs,the inter-IC communication links in many embedded computing platformsare bit-serial and not parallel buses. Prior efforts to reducecommunication power by encoding data using techniques such as Graycoding have, however, targeted parallel buses and are not applicable toreduce data transfer power in bit-serial communication interfaces.Therefore, there is a need in the industry to address one or more of theabove mentioned shortcomings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide method and apparatus forreducing power dissipation of sensor data on bit-serial communicationinterfaces. Briefly described, the present invention is directed to acommunication system that receives a binary sequence from a sensor,identifies a power consuming characteristic of the binary sequence, anddetermines an error component configured to reduce the power consumingcharacteristic of the binary sequence. The system compares the errorcomponent to an error tolerance deviation, and if the error component isbelow the error tolerance deviation, combines the error component withthe binary sequence to produce an output sequence and transmits theoutput sequence via a serial interface to a receiver configured toreceive the output sequence. The error threshold is based in part on anerror tolerance characteristic of the receiver.

Other systems, methods and features of the present invention will be orbecome apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art upon examiningthe following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that allsuch additional systems, methods, and features be included in thisdescription, be within the scope of the present invention and protectedby the accompanying claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprincipals of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an exemplary VDBS encoding.

FIG. 2 is a listing of a pseudocode implementation of a Rake embodimentfor VDBS encoding.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a device using aVDBS encoder.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for reducing power in a datatransmitting device.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a system forexecuting functionality of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a detail of the method of FIG. 4 implementingencoder type e₁.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a detail of the method of FIG. 4 implementingencoder type e₂.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a detail of the method of FIG. 4 implementingencoder type e₃.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a detail of the method of FIG. 4 implementingencoder type e₄.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the presentinvention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in thedrawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.

As used herein, a “sequence” refers to an ordered set of data formed asbinary bits, generally grouped into groups of a specific size, referredto herein as a word size, for example, an 8-bit or 16-bit word.

As used herein, a “serial interface” refers to a circuit component thattransmits and/or receives data via a single data bus, such that data istransmitted and/or received one bit at a time, sent one bit afteranother in a series (hence “serial”). In contrast, a parallel interfacerefers to a circuit component that transmits and/or receives datamultiple bits at a time, with a separate wire, lead, or trace for eachbit in a transmitted/received word. An electrical serial data busgenerally uses two voltage levels, namely, a high voltage levelindicating a first bit value, and a low voltage level indicating asecond bit value. For example, an electrical serial data bus may use avoltage level of 0V to represent a bit value of 0, and use a voltagelevel of 3V or 5V to represent a bit value of 1, while an optical serialbus (typically an optical fiber) may use a first illumination level torepresent a bit value of 0, and use a second illumination level torepresent a bit value of 1. As used herein, “signal transition” refersto the change of voltage or illumination on a serial data bus between abit value of 0 and a bit value of 1, or between a bit value of 1 and abit value of 0.

As used herein, “resolution” refers to the granularity of data, wherehigher resolution provides for a broader range of values for a singleparameter than a lower resolution. For example, a single bit resolutiononly allows for two values (0 or 1), where an eight bit value allows 256values (0-255), so an eight bit parameter has higher resolution than aone bit parameter.

As used within this disclosure, an “encoder” refers to a device,circuit, transducer, or software program that converts information(data) from one format or code to another, for example, to reduce thenumber of bit transitions in a transmitted value.

As used herein, “value-deviation” refers to the difference in valuebetween an encoded value and an unencoded value. A value-deviationthreshold may be used to cap the amount of value-deviation betweenencoded and unencoded values.

Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to reducingpower dissipated by electronic sensors. Data produced by electronicsensors is often generated by processes with some innate noise.Algorithms executed on processors that consume sensor data are usuallyrobust to small or occasional errors, even if they typically requirehigh-resolution data. Therefore, the exemplary embodiments herein employvalue-deviation-bounded serial (VDBS) encoders. VDBS encoders reducesignal transitions and thereby reduce dynamic power dissipation onserial communication interfaces, by permitting a selectable amount ofdeviation from correctness in transmitted data. Otherwise stated, theVDBS encoders trade off a controlled amount of precision or accuracy forpower conservation. Such efficient encodings may be computed offline anddeployed, for example, using lookup tables, resulting in small overheadsin practical applications.

VDBS-encoded values are generally interpreted as though they are notencoded. Therefore, VDBS does not require decoder hardware. Unlikeprevious encoding techniques, for example, T0 encoding, VDBS encoders donot require additional circuit board components, for example, controlwire on the bus. Because changes are not needed for the electricalinterface or to the receive side of communication links, VDBS encodersmay be integrated into production systems that use existing interfacessuch as SPI and I2C.

The embodiments described below incorporate analytic formulas for VDBSencoders that may generate offline encoding tables. These encoders,embodiments of which are referred to herein as “optimal encoders,” maybe targeted to minimizing/optimizing a particular attribute, forexample, transition reduction or deviation reduction. Another efficientVDBS encoder embodiment, Rake, is linear-time in input word size. Rakereduces transitions almost as much as the optimal transition-reducingVDBS encoder and induces almost as little deviation as the optimaldeviation-reducing VDBS encoder.

In evaluations of the optimal encoder and Rake VDBS encoders, Rakereduced signal transitions by 67% on average when targeting a worst-casevalue deviation of 10% in 8-bit values. For target worst-case valuedeviations of 0.12% of the full-scale range for 16-bit values, Rake mayreduce signal transitions by 41% on average. The evaluation results showthat VDBS encoders reduce transitions more than simply representingvalues with shorter words of equivalent effective number of bits.

Serial interfaces transmit binary data consecutively, one bit afteranother. For example, an electrical signal may represent bits as twodistinct voltage levels, and an optical signal may represent bits as twolight intensity levels. The signal level does not change between twoconsecutive high or low bits, but does change (transition) between twoconsecutive differing bits, namely, a high-low (1 to 0) transition orlow-high (0 to 1) transition. Dynamic power dissipation in serialinterfaces occurs when consecutive serialized bits of the same worddiffer. Herein, the “serial transition count (STC)” refers to a numberof such transitions between consecutive bits of the same word, forexample, an eight bit word. Herein, “word” refers to any n-bit groupingof consecutive bits, for example, n=8, where n is referred to as theword size. Practically, the word size may be related to a system ordevice characteristic, for example, the bus design of the system, or theoutput resolution of an analog to digital converter (ADC), for example,8<n<24.

The maximum STCs occur when words have alternating 0s and 1s in theirbinary representations. FIG. 1 shows how modifying transmitted wordsreduces the STC at the cost of small deviations from accuracy, where thevalue 64 (shown on the right) has an STC of 2, while the value of 63(shown on the left) has an STC of 1. Therefore, by introducing adeviation in the transmitted value from 64 to 63, the STC is reducedfrom 2 to 1. VDBS encoding reduces transitions while incurring a valuedeviation, |s−t|, of 1, where s and t are two unsigned l-bit integersrepresenting unencoded and encoded words, respectively. As shown in FIG.1, all bits except the most-significant bit are modified (shown shadedin the right hand figure), not just the lower log₂(|s−t|) bits.

VDBS encoding generalizes the idea illustrated in FIG. 1. Consideringboth STC reduction and induced deviation, Pareto-optimal VDBS encoderseither minimize the induced deviation, maximize the STC reduction, orboth. For example, s and t are two unsigned l-bit integers representingunencoded and encoded words, respectively, m is the difference innumeric value between s and t, and #_(δ)(k) represents the STC for aninteger k. A Boolean predicate P_(s,t,m) denotes the constraintsatisfied by all VDBS encoders that maintain or reduce STCs whileinducing a deviation less than or equal to m:

$\begin{matrix}{P_{s,t,m} = {\left( {{{s - t}} \leq m} \right) ⩓ \left( {\left( {{\#\;{\delta(s)}} - {\#\;{\delta(t)}}} \right) \geq 0} \right)}} & \left( {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} 1} \right)\end{matrix}$

Δs,t=|#δ(s)−#δ(t)| represents the difference in serial transition countsbetween two words s and t. Given an input word s and integer mindicating how much deviation in s is acceptable, there are fourpossible optimal encoding functions e₁-e₄ that satisfy the Booleanpredicate P_(s,t,m). These functions define the bounds on transitionreduction and value deviation:

${{e_{1}\left( {s,m} \right)} = \left( {{\tau\mspace{14mu}{s.t.\mspace{14mu} P_{s,\tau,m}}} ⩓ \left( {{{s - \tau}} = {\min\limits_{0 < i < {2^{i} - 1}}{{s - i}}}} \right)} \right)},{{e_{2}\left( {s,m} \right)} = \left( {{\tau\mspace{14mu}{s.t.\mspace{14mu} P_{s,\tau,m}}} ⩓ \left( {{{s - \tau}} = {\min\limits_{0 < i < {2^{i} - 1}}{{s - i}}}} \right)} \right)},{{e_{3}\left( {s,m} \right)} = \left( {{\tau\mspace{14mu}{s.t.\mspace{14mu} P_{s,\tau,m}}} ⩓ \left( {\Delta_{s,\tau} = {\min\limits_{0 < i < {2^{i} - 1}}\Delta_{s,i}}} \right)} \right)},{{e_{4}\left( {s,m} \right)} = {\left( {{\tau\mspace{14mu}{s.t.\mspace{14mu} P_{s,\tau,m}}} ⩓ \left( {\Delta_{s,\tau} = {\min\limits_{0 < i < {2^{i} - 1}}\Delta_{s,i}}} \right)} \right).\mspace{11mu}\bullet}}$While the following examples involve unsigned integers, the analysis maybe extended to two's-complement, fixed point, and floating pointrepresentations.

The four functions e₁ through e₄ bound the amount by which VDBS encodersreduce STCs and bound the deviation they induce:

e₁(s, m) causes the smallest deviations.

e₂(s, m) causes the largest deviations.

e₃(s, m) reduces STCs the least.

e₄(s, m) reduces STCs the most.

These functions may be used to obtain a method for VDBS encoding whosebehavior encompasses the best of the properties of all the aboveencoders: induced deviation close to that of e₁ and STC reduction closeto that of e₄.

The subset of three encoder types e₁, e₃, and e₄ are Pareto-optimal whenconsidering both serial transition reduction and deviation. Because itis strictly dominated by e₄, the encoder e₂ is not in the Pareto set.The behavior of the simplistic encoder that for a given tolerabledeviation m only removes transitions from the lower log₂(m) bits issimilar to e₂.

Given an unencoded value s in which an application can tolerate a valuedeviation m, the family of optimal encoders e₁-e₄ specify the possibleoptimum ways in which encoding can reduce serial transitions in s. Theoptimal encoders e₁-e₄ also determine the amount of deviation that anencoding will induce for a given selected deviation that applicationscan tolerate. Exact algorithms for the optimal encoders e₁-e₄ select anencoded value for s out of a set whose size is exponential in the wordsize of s. A brute-force application of the predicate in Eq. 1 istherefore inefficient even if applied offline to generate a lookup table(LUT) and may be impractical for large word sizes, for example, wordsizes of 64 bits or larger.

Rake, an efficient method for VDBS encoding, addresses the cost of thePareto-optimal encoders, particularly for large word sizes. Theexecution time for Rake is linear in the word size of the values itencodes. For a specified deviation m in its encoded values, Rake reducestransitions more than the basic technique that simply removes alltransitions from the lower-order log₂(m) bits. At the same time, Rakereduces transitions almost as much as the Pareto-optimal VDBS encoder e₄that minimizes the serial transition count for a given tolerabledeviation.

On average, Rake incurs value deviations smaller than all thePareto-optimum VDBS encoders except e₁ (which minimizes valuedeviation). The embodiment is referred to as Rake because it operates intwo sweeps of a word, accumulating metadata in the first sweep andleveling out transitions in the second. An exemplary implementation ofRake, shown in FIG. 2, is described here.

In the first phase (lines 1 to 6), moving across the l-bit input word sfrom least-significant bit (LSB) to most-significant bit (MSB), Rakestores the number of transitions seen to-date in the transition countregister, nt. Rake stores the indices of these transitions in thetransition indices array, tr (line 2). For each transition, Rake storesthe length of the run of 0s or 1s leading to the transition, in the runlength temporary register, rl (line 3). Each such run of 0s or 1s may bebit-wise negated to either increase or decrease the value of s. Rakestores the change in value that such a negation contributes in thecumulative run contribution arrays, cr0c for runs of 0s and cr1c forruns of 1s (lines 4 and 5).

In the second phase (lines 7 to 10), Rake moves across the input in theopposite direction, from MSB to LSB, inspecting only the nt bitpositions that have transitions. Rake previously stored these locationsin tr. For each of the nt transition locations in tr, Rake checkswhether the value deviation incurred by negating the bits thatconstitute a transition could be offset by the runs of lower order bitsof opposite polarity, as represented by the contents of cr0c and cr1c(lines 8 and 9). Rake removes the first transition that passes thischeck and completes. Rake takes l steps as it traverses from the LSB tothe MSB, followed by at most nt−2 steps in the opposite direction. Themaximum value of nt is l−1, thus Rake takes a maximum of 2l−3 steps. Forexample, for 24-bit values, Rake requires only on the order of, forexample, 45 steps, compared to having to explore a space of 16 millionvalues for the exact optimal solution.

Rake is not only efficient, but also effective: Rake reduces transitionsalmost as much as the optimal VDBS encoder e₄ as shown below. Bycontrast, the naive approach of simply removing transitions from thelower-order log₂(m) bits for a tolerable value deviation of m does notreduce transitions as much as Rake does.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of an encoderdevice 300 using a VDBS encoder 340. A data source 310 produces data forserial transmission. The data source may be, for example, a sensor 320that produces an analog signal that is converted to a digitalrepresentation by an ADC 325. The data source 310 may produce digitaldata of differing word sizes, for example, 8-bit or 16-bit words. TheVDBS encoder 340 receives the word from the data source 310 and encodesthe word, for example, using a look up table 360. The VDBS encoder 340generally includes a processor and/or computer, as described furtherbelow, or may be implemented using a custom-designed logic circuit. TheVDBS encoder 340 may accept input parameters from an optional interface350. Such input parameters may include, for example, a word size and/ora tolerable deviation threshold. Alternatively, these parameters may bepre-defined, for example, stored in a memory in the VDBS encoder 340. Aserial transmitter 380, or other serial interface, receives the encodedword from the VDBS, and serially transmits the encoded word to areceiver 390, for example, via a serial bus or optical fiber.

Two objective metrics are important for VDBS encoders:

-   -   1. The average serial transition count reduction for a given        word size and tolerable deviation.    -   2. The average actual deviation that is induced by encoders for        a given tolerable deviation.        Encoders may be evaluated, for example by applying the encoders        to all possible unsigned words with sizes of 8 and 16 bits.        These sizes are representative of the range of word sizes for        sensor 320 and ADC 325 values used in real-world systems.

Data moving from processors to memories must often be transferredaccurately. Techniques for reducing power dissipation on processormemory buses therefore employ substitution codes such as Gray codes, businvert codes, or T0 codes. In these prior approaches, data are recoveredexactly after decoding. VDBS encoding, by contrast, requires nodecoding, but is lossy. Because of crosstalk and pin limitations amongother things, both state-of-the-art high-performance systems as well asenergy sensitive wearable platforms predominantly use serialcommunication interfaces between ICs. Because serial interfaces transmitone bit of a word at a time, however, they cannot benefit from low-powerencodings developed for parallel buses. Low-power encodings for serialvideo data exploit tonal locality in images to reduce transitions inexchange for data representation overheads. Other approaches to reducingtransitions include representing values with fewer bits, or usingtransition encoding. VDBS encoders are more effective at reducingtransitions than approaches that simply reduce the number of bitstransmitted. Many signal processing and recognition, mining, andsynthesis applications can tolerate errors in their input data. Thismotivates low-power encodings that trade sensor data accuracy for lowerpower dissipation.

Wearable and health-tracking devices dissipate important fractions oftheir energy on sensor activation and data transfer. Since package andcircuit board capacitances do not improve with semiconductor processadvances, the fraction will continue to grow relative to components suchas processors. For reasons of space and cost, however, the data transferhappens over serial interfaces, not over parallel buses. This precludesencodings such as Gray codes. Value-deviation-bounded serial encoding(VDBS encoding) reduces the dynamic power dissipation of serial datacommunication when applications tolerate deviations in the data valuesbeing transmitted.

Evaluation results have shown that Rake performs close to optimal inreducing serial transitions. For one optical character recognition (OCR)system evaluated, Rake reduced signal transitions (and hence dynamicpower dissipation of data transfer) by 55% on average, while maintainingOCR accuracy at over 90% for previously-correctly-recognized text. Forone pedometer system evaluated, Rake reduced signal transitions by 54%on average, while causing less than 5% error in reported step counts, onaverage.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method 400 for reducing power in a datatransmitting device. It should be noted that any process descriptions orblocks in flowcharts should be understood as representing modules,segments, portions of code, or steps that include one or moreinstructions for implementing specific logical functions in the process,and alternative implementations are included within the scope of thepresent invention in which functions may be executed out of order fromthat shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or inreverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would beunderstood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the presentinvention. The steps of the method 400 are described in context of theencoder device 300 (FIG. 3).

An encoder device 300 or system maximizes an objective function f forinput L-bit words, v, as shown by block 410. For example, f may be thereciprocal of energy needed for transmitting a word v via a serialtransmitter 380. A VDBS Encoder 340 receives an incoming L-bit word v422 to be transmitted, a tolerable deviation m 424, and an encoder typeq 426, as shown by block 420. The input word v may be received by theVDBS encoder 340, for example, from a data source 310. If the tolerabledeviation m is equal to zero, as shown by block 430, the output w isunmodified, as shown by block 440. Otherwise, an encoder e is selectedbased on the encoder type selection q, as shown by block 450. The VDBSencoder 340 may be implemented, for example, using a look up table 360.As shown by FIG. 460, subroutines for each individual selection q may beexecuted. The individual subroutines are shown by FIG. 2 (Rake), FIG. 6(e₁ 600), FIG. 7 (e₂ 700), FIG. 8 (e₃ 800), and FIG. 9 (e₄ 900),respectively. For each of FIGS. 6-9 the encoder receives an incomingL-bit word v to be transmitted, and a tolerable deviation m. Theincoming word v, is passed through the selected encoder to obtain anencoded value w, such that |w−v|≤m, as shown by block 470. The encodedvalue v that maximizes the objective function f is output by the serialtransmitter 380, as shown by block 480. The e₁ encoder 600 produces aword v that results in the smallest deviations. The e₂ encoder 700produces a word v resulting in the largest deviations. The e₃ encoder800 produces a word v that reduces STCs the least. The e₄ encoder 900produces a word v that reduces STCs the most.

As previously mentioned, the present system for executing thefunctionality described in detail above may be a computer, an example ofwhich is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 5. The system 500contains a processor 502, a storage device 504, a memory 506 havingsoftware 508 stored therein that defines the abovementionedfunctionality, input and output (I/O) devices 510 (or peripherals), anda local bus, or local interface 512 allowing for communication withinthe system 500. The local interface 512 can be, for example but notlimited to, one or more buses or other wired or wireless connections, asis known in the art. The local interface 512 may have additionalelements, which are omitted for simplicity, such as controllers, buffers(caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, to enable communications.Further, the local interface 512 may include address, control, and/ordata connections to enable appropriate communications among theaforementioned components.

The processor 502 is a hardware device for executing software,particularly that stored in the memory 506. The processor 502 can be anycustom made or commercially available single core or multi-coreprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliary processor amongseveral processors associated with the present system 500, asemiconductor based microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chipset), a macroprocessor, or generally any device for executing softwareinstructions.

The memory 506 can include any one or combination of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random access memory (RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM,etc.)) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, hard drive, tape,CDROM, etc.). Moreover, the memory 506 may incorporate electronic,magnetic, optical, and/or other types of storage media. Note that thememory 506 can have a distributed architecture, where various componentsare situated remotely from one another, but can be accessed by theprocessor 502.

The software 508 defines functionality performed by the system 500, inaccordance with the present invention. The software 508 in the memory506 may include one or more separate programs, each of which contains anordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logicalfunctions of the system 500, as described below. The memory 506 maycontain an operating system (O/S) 520. The operating system essentiallycontrols the execution of programs within the system 500 and providesscheduling, input-output control, file and data management, memorymanagement, and communication control and related services.

The I/O devices 510 may include input devices, for example but notlimited to, a keyboard, mouse, scanner, microphone, etc. Furthermore,the I/O devices 510 may also include output devices, for example but notlimited to, a printer, display, etc. Finally, the I/O devices 510 mayfurther include devices that communicate via both inputs and outputs,for instance but not limited to, a modulator/demodulator (modem; foraccessing another device, system, or network), a radio frequency (RF) orother transceiver, a telephonic interface, a bridge, a router, or otherdevice.

When the system 500 is in operation, the processor 502 is configured toexecute the software 508 stored within the memory 506, to communicatedata to and from the memory 506, and to generally control operations ofthe system 500 pursuant to the software 508, as explained above.

When the functionality of the system 500 is in operation, the processor502 is configured to execute the software 508 stored within the memory506, to communicate data to and from the memory 506, and to generallycontrol operations of the system 500 pursuant to the software 508. Theoperating system 520 is read by the processor 502, perhaps bufferedwithin the processor 502, and then executed.

When the system 500 is implemented in software 508, it should be notedthat instructions for implementing the system 500 can be stored on anycomputer-readable medium for use by or in connection with anycomputer-related device, system, or method. Such a computer-readablemedium may, in some embodiments, correspond to either or both the memory506 or the storage device 504. In the context of this document, acomputer-readable medium is an electronic, magnetic, optical, or otherphysical device or means that can contain or store a computer programfor use by or in connection with a computer-related device, system, ormethod. Instructions for implementing the system can be embodied in anycomputer-readable medium for use by or in connection with the processoror other such instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.Although the processor 502 has been mentioned by way of example, suchinstruction execution system, apparatus, or device may, in someembodiments, be any computer-based system, processor-containing system,or other system that can fetch the instructions from the instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. Inthe context of this document, a “computer-readable medium” can be anymeans that can store, communicate, propagate, or transport the programfor use by or in connection with the processor or other such instructionexecution system, apparatus, or device.

Such a computer-readable medium can be, for example but not limited to,an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, orsemiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. Morespecific examples (a nonexhaustive list) of the computer-readable mediumwould include the following: an electrical connection (electronic)having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette (magnetic), arandom access memory (RAM) (electronic), a read-only memory (ROM)(electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM, EEPROM,or Flash memory) (electronic), an optical fiber (optical), and aportable compact disc read-only memory (CDROM) (optical). Note that thecomputer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable mediumupon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronicallycaptured, via for instance optical scanning of the paper or othermedium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitablemanner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

In an alternative embodiment, where the system 500 is implemented inhardware, the system 500 can be implemented with any or a combination ofthe following technologies, which are each well known in the art: adiscrete logic circuit(s) having logic gates for implementing logicfunctions upon data signals, an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC) having appropriate combinational logic gates, a programmable gatearray(s) (PGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc.

In summary, while the previous embodiments have generally describedencodings intended to reduce the number of bit transitions in a serialinterface, persons with ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatsimilar encodings may be tailored to other outcomes. For example, it maybe desirable to minimize the number of transmitted 1s (or 0s), forinstance, to reduce energy consumption of a laser transmitter in a fiberoptic interface, or other serial interfaces.

The embodiments described above actually improve the operation of asensor device or sensor based system, by reducing the power consumptionprofile of such sensor devices and sensor based systems without havingto modify the sensor itself, and without having to provide decodingfacilities.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the structure of the presentinvention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present inventioncover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fallwithin the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for reducing power in a datatransmitting device configured to transmit bit-serial data via anoptical or electrical signal, comprising the steps of: receiving by thetransmitting device data consisting of binary data comprising a firstbinary data sequence; identifying a power consuming characteristic ofthe first binary data sequence; determining a data error componentconsisting of binary data configured to reduce the power consumingcharacteristic of the first binary data sequence; combining the dataerror component with the first binary data sequence to produce an outputbinary data sequence consisting of binary data different from the firstbinary data sequence; and transmitting by the transmitting device theoptical or electrical signal carrying the output binary data sequencevia a serial interface, wherein the data error component comprises adeviation in a transmitted value of the output binary data sequence fromthe first binary data sequence, and combining the data error componentwith the first binary data sequence to produce the output binary datasequence introduces the deviation in the transmitted value, and thepower consuming characteristic of the first binary data sequence relatesto a power dissipation from the data transmitting device transmittingthe optical or electrical signal.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising the steps of: comparing the error component to an errortolerance deviation; and if the error component is below the errortolerance deviation, combining the error component with the first binarydata sequence to produce the output binary data sequence.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein comparing and combining further comprises using thefirst binary data sequence to look up the output binary data sequence ina stored table.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the power consumingcharacteristic comprises a number of binary transitions in the firstbinary data sequence.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the powerconsuming characteristic comprises a number of binary ones or a numberof zeros in the first binary data sequence.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the first binary data sequence comprises a fixed word size. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein a sensor provides the first binary datasequence to the data transmitting device.
 8. A communication systemcomprising: a transmitter comprising a processor and a memory configuredto store non-transitory instruction that when executed by the processorperform the steps comprising: receiving data consisting of binary datacomprising a first binary data sequence; identifying a power consumingcharacteristic of the binary data sequence; determining a data errorcomponent consisting of binary data configured to reduce the powerconsuming characteristic of the binary data sequence; comparing the dataerror component to an error tolerance deviation; if the data errorcomponent is below the error tolerance deviation, combining the dataerror component with the first binary data sequence to produce an outputbinary data sequence; and transmitting an optical or electrical signalcarrying the output binary data sequence via a serial interface; and areceiver configured to receive the optical or electrical signal carryingoutput binary data sequence, wherein the error threshold of thetransmitting device is based in part on an error tolerancecharacteristic of the receiving device, the data error componentcomprises a deviation in a transmitted value of the output binary datasequence from the first binary data sequence, and combining the dataerror component with the first binary data sequence to produce theoutput binary data sequence introduces the deviation in the transmittedvalue, and the power consuming characteristic of the first binary datasequence relates to a power dissipation from the transmittertransmitting the optical or electrical signal.
 9. The system of claim 8,further comprising a sensor configured to produce the first binary datasequence.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the sensor furthercomprises an analog to digital converter configured to produce the firstbinary data sequence from an analog signal.
 11. A serial communicationinterface device comprising: a memory and a processor configured toexecute non-transitory instruction stored in the memory to receive dataconsisting of binary data comprising a first binary data sequence andproduce an output binary data sequence different from the first binarydata sequence configured to reduce a power consuming characteristic ofthe first data binary sequence; and a serial interface configured totransmit an optical or electrical signal carrying the output binary datasequence, wherein the power consuming characteristic of the first binarydata sequence relates to a power dissipation due to transmitting theoptical or electrical signal.
 12. The device of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: identify the power consumingcharacteristic of the first binary data sequence; determine an errordata component configured to reduce the power consuming characteristicof the binary data sequence; and combining the error data component withthe binary data sequence to produce the output binary data sequence. 13.The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to:compare the error data component to an error tolerance deviation; and ifthe error data component is below the error tolerance deviation, combinethe error data component with the first binary data sequence to producethe output binary data sequence.
 14. The device of claim 11, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: use the first binary data sequenceto look up the output binary data sequence in a stored table.
 15. Thedevice of claim 11, further comprising a sensor configured to generatethe first binary data sequence.
 16. The device of claim 11, furthercomprising an analog-to-digital converter configured to convert ananalog signal of the sensor to the first binary data sequence.